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Idea: Let's take an expensive re-usable engine (left over from the Shuttle) and put it on an expendable launch vehicle!


I believe engine re-use is on their roadmap. Not for the first launch, or the second, but I think the aim is to have it soon.

That said, it's "re-use" by ejecting them and parachuting them down to a safe landing, so who knows if that will work.


You are thinking of ULA’s Vulcan rocket, and there are indications that their engine reuse plan has been entirely abandoned. Aerojet has modified the Shuttle’s RS-25 engine design to make it explicitly non-reusable (in the hopes of reducing costs).


Huh, it looks like I might be. I could have sworn this was a block 1B or block 2 feature, that they were going to eject the engine unit and refurbish it, but looks like I must be mistaking it for the Vulcan. That's a shame they might have abandoned their engine re-use plan.




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